November marks Black Catholic History Month. This month, let us focus on eradicating racism from our communities.
Black Catholic history can be traced to the Acts of the Apostles (8:26-40) when St. Philip the Deacon converted the Ethiopian eunuch – one of the first moves the Apostles made to evangelize outside Jerusalem and thus sow the seeds for the universal Church.
By our baptism, we are members of Christ’s Body and sharers in His mission. Imitating Christ, we must care for all members of our communities, honoring each person as unique, sacred and created in the image of God. Let us celebrate the history and heritage of Black Catholics, and allow the Holy Spirit to convert our hearts so that we may live authentically in true relationship to one another.
The scourge of racism has a long history, with roots that existed well before the founding of the United States. But racism exists here in a particular and pernicious way, mainly because slavery was embedded in our early history.
In their 1979 Pastoral Letter, “Brothers and Sisters to Us,” the Catholic bishops of the United States wrote: “Racism is a sin: a sin that divides the human family, blots out the image of God among specific members of that family, and violates the fundamental human dignity of those called to be children of the same Father.”
Racism is a roadblock to unity, and blinds us to the human dignity that lives in every human person. Even if we do not hold the evil of racism in our hearts, we must strive to open our eyes to the many places it can be enflamed or encouraged, impacting our brothers and sisters.
Racism is an attack on the image of God that has been given to every one of us by the Creator (Gen 5:1-3). Because each person has been created by God, we are all united together with the Lord and with each other. Racism rejects what God has done by refusing to acknowledge the image of God in the other, the stranger and the one who is different. The fact that we were created in the image of God should remind us that each person is a living expression of God that must be respected and preserved.
May They All Be One
Racism is divisive and damages the harmony and oneness that should characterize all our relationships. What divides us does not have to destroy us. Differences do not have to frighten us.
Following the advice of St. Paul, we can pray for the grace to look beyond our own prejudices: “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” (Eph 4:32). Recall that before His death, Christ prayed, “May they all be one” (Jn 17:21).
Loving the Neighbor
When asked which was the first of all the commandments, Jesus replied the first is this: “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ And the second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Mk 12: 28-31). Obviously, racism goes against the commandment of love. We are all called, therefore, to oppose racism in our communities. Loving neighbors who are different from us through kind and generous actions can be as simple as forming friendships, supporting minority-owned businesses, or participating in community activities with those of other faiths or other races. Loving our God obligates us to love our neighbors as well.
Scripture teaches: “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen” (1 Jn 4:20). To love our neighbor, fundamentally, is to respect him or her as a unique person made in the image and likeness of God. If we do not offer this respect to the creature, then we dishonor the Creator. Such a basic truth of the Christian faith must therefore be our guide when we consider the many kinds of people we encounter, people of different races, creeds, and traditions.
The sin of racism is the opposite of love. In committing the sin of racism, we are not loving others. Instead, we are placing others outside of our hearts – way outside. Which is why it is a sin. It is also why we need to fight racism, especially in our own hearts. It is a poison that infects our souls. So, the question each of us must ask ourselves each and every day is this: who have I placed outside of my heart? And then we need to repent by asking ourselves, how can I show them that I love them?
The Teaching of the Church
The Catholic Church is very clear: racism and every form of discrimination based on “sex, race, color, social conditions, language, or religion must be curbed and eradicated as incompatible with God’s design” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1935). We are called to work to protect the dignity of all members of one human family by confronting racism in all its forms and by welcoming and celebrating the diversity of the many faces of the children of God in our communities. Building unity in diversity is an essential part of our mission of discipleship.
Racism Is a Pro-Life Issue
Our faith calls us to respect and protect every human life – from its very beginning to its very end, and at every moment in between. Protecting human life also requires us to protect the dignity of each person, regardless of race, physical condition, age or stage of life. Tragically, people often are not treated with the respect that their human dignity requires.
Racism violates the fundamental truth about the human person and therefore it must be fought not only through changing hearts but also through advocacy in the halls of government. This means that the Church must work in the public square defending the dignity of each person, and in a special way. As “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship” states, “Loving our neighbor has global dimensions and requires us to eradicate racism.”
What the Mass Teaches Us
In reflecting on the liturgy, Pope Benedict XVI once said: “The Lord does not assemble the parish community in order to enclose it but in order to open it up. …. To be with the Lord means to be willing, with Him, to seek all the children of God.” There is no place in the sacred liturgy, therefore, for any form of hatred or racism or self-righteousness. Quite the opposite; going out seeking all the children of God means having the desire to gather them into the community, worshiping God together. The liturgy teaches us this because it teaches us how Christ did exactly the same thing. Christ became man so as to seek us out and unite us to His Father.
The Family: The School of Love
While racism is often tragically passed down through families, the family also offers the best antidote to all forms of fear and prejudice because it is in the family where we can encounter unconditional love, which echoes God’s love for us.
How can we rely more on God’s love and teach our children to love everyone? Consider these examples:
- Pray together daily: Pray for the needs of others in your neighborhood, community, and beyond. Help your children to see the needs of people who are different from them. Help your family to see the Face of Christ in every person.
- Practice the art of conversation (dialogue) daily: Eat dinner together as a family – without mobile devices – and find other ways to spend time together. Have real conversations, at an age-appropriate level, about challenges or events that are in the news.
- Practice hospitality and love of neighbor: Get to know your neighbors’ names and needs, show concern for them, pray for them, and assist them when possible.
- No family is perfect, but every family can grow in love.
If You Want Peace, Start Talking
We are all familiar with the phrase “If you want peace, work for justice.” But the question is: How do we begin? We begin by talking to each other. Justice happens when relationships are in good order, and relationships require communication. What is needed, then, are sustained, honest and courageous conversations that achieve respect, build solidarity and convey the boundless love of God for the human family.
If you want peace, start talking and let the Holy Spirit be your guide.
— Excerpted from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ “Responding to the Sin of Racism”
In November 2018 the Catholic bishops of the United States released a pastoral letter against racism called “Open Wide Our Hearts.” It is a powerful invitation for the people of God to “face courageously the vice of racism, ... reach out generously to the victims of this evil, to assist the conversion needed in those who still harbor racism, and to begin to change policies and structures that allow racism to persist.”
At www.usccb.org/racism: Read the entire letter, get prayer and educational resources, and find ideas for how you can respond.
At www.catholicnewsherald.com: Read more about Black Catholic History Month, including more about the Church’s black saints
Practical steps for ending racism
Racism is evil because it attacks the inherent dignity of the human person, created in the image and likeness of God. The persistence of racism demands our attention and our response:
1. Read (or re-read) “Open Wide Our Hearts: The Enduring Call to Love – A Pastoral Letter against Racism” using the accompanying study guide. Visit usccb.org/racism.
2. Create various large and small group opportunities for family and community members to process their feelings in the midst of news and commentary about vulnerable populations and law enforcement. Encourage participants to reflect or share their own upbringing regarding comments in the home, from parents and individuals, media and entertainment, even practices of the Church about the merits or demerits of certain groups of people made to be “the other.” Ask. “How have I knowingly or unconsciously made this formation part of my world view? Where could I have spoken up but didn’t?”
3. Arrange a safe space for young people to reflect and pray about racism and recent events. Listen to the current experiences of young people. Encourage and allow their creative expression. Invite them to generate methodologies that are meaningful to them.
4. Attend an intergenerational interracial virtual town hall discussion on racism. Respect that for some African Americans, Hispanics and others, talking about personal racial experiences in a mixed race setting is painful as it is like reopening a wound that hadn’t fully healed.
5. Use a pastoral and non-partisan lens to respond to concerns of family and community members about racism, policing and public safety. Do not politicize this. Lean on Gospel values, instead.
6. Contact your pastor, parish council or diocesan office to discuss possible ways to dialogue. (In the Diocese of Charlotte, contact African American Affairs Ministry director Rosheene Adams at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or Catholic Charities’ Social Concerns and Advocacy Director Joseph Purello at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..)
7. Learn about structural racism and its roots in your community and get involved in the work to address it. It might look like housing discrimination that continues to contribute to segregated communities or disparate access to quality education.
8. Invite your parish to incorporate regular dialogue among parishioners about their experiences with racism, prejudice and racial discrimination.
9. Invite your parish or faith-sharing group to host a conversation with a group of African American, Latino, Indigenous or African men and/or young people about their personal experiences with law enforcement.
10. Encourage religious education classes and faith-sharing groups, as well as clergy at your parish, to speak out against racism and for personal responsibility to eradicate it. Continue to study and understand racism as it manifested in the past and does so today.
— USCCB
Open Wide Our Hearts Prayer
Mary, friend and mother to all, through your Son, God has found a way to unite himself to every human being, called to be one people, sisters and brothers to each other.
We ask for your help in calling on your Son, seeking forgiveness for the times when we have failed to love and respect one another.
We ask for your help in obtaining from your Son the grace we need to overcome the evil of racism and to build a just society.
We ask for your help in following your Son, so that prejudice and animosity will no longer infect our minds or hearts but will be replaced with a love that respects the dignity of each person.
Mother of the Church, the Spirit of your Son Jesus warms our hearts: pray for us. Amen.
A Blessed Day
GREENSBORO — So beloved is Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen at Our Lady of Grace Parish that the story of his visit, 44 years ago this month, passes from parishioner to parishioner in reverent tones. Details of his 1976 blessing of the church and school are met with awe bordering on incredulity because, for some, belonging to a parish graced with a visit from the famed archbishop is almost too good to be true.
It certainly seems to be the case for one devoted family of 11. Parishioners L.T. Terrell, a licensed therapist and EMT, and his wife Casey, a nurse, and their eldest eight children – seven girls and a boy named Fulton (with brother Ian due in February) – enjoy watching Sheen’s “Life Is Worth Living” TV show re-runs and having family discussions about the lessons he imparted.
“His humor and wit are much needed for our generation,” L.T. Terrell said. “Fulton Sheen has had such an impact on us as a family that we decided to name our son after him. We have named our kids down the alphabet: Anna, Bethany, Catherine, Danielle, Emily, Fulton, Gretchen and Hermione. So we happened to be on F for our first boy. We believe it was providence.”
The circumstances certainly are remarkable – they didn’t know until recently, but the date Sheen visited Our Lady of Grace Church is the same as their son Fulton’s birthday: Nov. 14.
Five of the Terrell children attend Our Lady of Grace School. “Knowing Fulton Sheen visited gives me much joy and hope for the future of our school,” Terrell said.
The prolific writer, theologian, preacher and Emmy Award-winning media personality drew a U.S. audience of 30 million in 1957 at the peak of his weekly network telecast “Life Is Worth Living” and he wrote more than 60 books. Sheen became the auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of New York in 1951, Bishop of Rochester in 1966, and Archbishop of the titular see of Newport, Wales, in 1969.
He was a regular host on “The Catholic Hour” radio program for 22 years starting in 1930, and he presented “The Fulton Sheen Program” from 1961 to 1968. He spent many years as the national director of the Society of the Propagation of the Faith, raised hundreds of millions of dollars for the world’s poor, donated $10 million of his own money to the missions, was an alumnus and professor at the Catholic University of America, preached retreats, visited the sick and imprisoned, and built churches and hospitals for the poor. He died in 1979.
In 2002 his cause for canonization was opened, and in 2012 he was declared venerable.
The Archbishop Visits Greensboro
Sheen came to Greensboro on Sunday, Nov. 14, 1976, to bless Our Lady of Grace Parish’s new school and activity center at the invitation of the pastor. He celebrated Mass at noon, with the church so full that many of the faithful had to use overflow seating in the new gymnasium.
Later that day, Sheen spoke at the dedication of the new activity center and school. For him, education was about the “whole man – the intellect and will, not just the mind alone,” a philosophy shared at OLG School today, where nurturing the “whole person” is a key part of its mission.
The three-story building then included six classrooms on the third floor and became known as the Upper School while the original school building was designated the Lower School. The original building also includes a gym, cafeteria and administrative offices and was expanded in 2014.
Bishop Michael Begley, a former pastor of Our Lady of Grace and the first bishop of the Diocese of Charlotte, was also on hand to formally dedicate the parish’s activity center. Greensboro’s mayor and an official from the N.C. Department of Education attended the big event.
The 81-year-old orator’s voice still had its trademark boom, his blue eyes still pierced, and those present noted his charisma and joviality. One parishioner recalled how blessed she felt to be the last to receive Communion from Sheen at the Mass.
Eileen Rohan, wife of the parish’s retired Deacon Tim Rohan, recalled that Sheen had requested to have the Immaculate Heart of Mary Sisters who ran the school sit in the front rows during Mass. Rohan also noted that the young Columbian Squires of the Knights of Columbus served as escorts for the day. As he prepared to enter the church, Sheen blessed each of the boys, including her own son Tim, as their parents looked on.
It was a meaningful moment for the Rohan family that made them feel more at home in North Carolina. “We had just moved to Greensboro from New York, and we really wanted to see the bishop from where we lived for so long,” Rohan recalled, noting that she regularly prays a novena for Sheen’s beatification and canonization.
Longtime parishioner Don Brady assisted then-pastor Father Francis Smith as the chair of the capital campaign for the 1976 school expansion. Brady recalled, “He was a very tiny man with the deepest blue eyes I have ever seen, and he really was wonderful at looking at the person he was talking to. He loved our church.”
Beatification Anticipation
Sheen is expected to be named a Blessed in Peoria, Ill., near his birthplace of El Paso, Ill. Beatification, an act in which the Church allows a candidate for sainthood to be venerated publicly in places closely associated with his or her life and ministry, brings him to the final step before canonization as a saint.
In July, Pope Francis approved a miracle attributed to Sheen, involving a Peoria baby who had just been born but had no pulse and wasn’t breathing. Bonnie and Travis Engstrom, as well as their family and friends, prayed for Sheen’s intercession to save their baby’s life and heal any damage to his body. After 61 minutes, James Fulton Engstrom began breathing, and his heart rate shot up to a normal rate for a newborn. Ten years later, James Fulton continues to develop normally with hardly a trace of his traumatic birth – one that many medical experts agree should have left him with severe brain damage. The pope’s approval of the miracle allowed Sheen’s beatification process to move forward. Bonnie Engstrom shares her story in detail in her 2019 book, “61 Minutes to a Miracle: Fulton Sheen and a True Story of the Impossible.”
Since his cause for canonization was opened, there have been delays in the process, including legal battles over where to permanently inter his body and even a postponement of the initial date for the beatification. The event has been highly anticipated and is expected to be held at Peoria’s Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception, the same location of Sheen’s ordination 101 years ago and where he served as an altar boy. Updates on his beatification can be found at www.celebratesheen.com.
Sheen’s ministry took him all over the U.S. and the world, where he celebrated Mass at churches like Our Lady of Grace. The archbishop had a gift for reaching souls across the airwaves and in person, making his points in culturally relevant ways using his trademark humor.
Prophetic Message in Greensboro
News of Sheen’s Greensboro visit was heralded at least three times in the city’s newspaper, in which he was noted, along with his friend and famed evangelist Billy Graham, as one of the world’s most widely known religious leaders. As it happens, Graham visited Greensboro just a few days after Sheen in 1976.
It was Sheen’s first visit to the city in many years, although he had traveled to North Carolina the year before to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Diocese of Raleigh and serve as a featured speaker at a Methodist church in Charlotte.
Coverage of his visit included an interview in the church’s rectory with Greensboro Daily News religion writer Harvey Harris. The interview piece was titled “Sheen: Church’s Role Taken Over By Media.”
At that point, Sheen’s “Life Is Worth Living” had been off the air for nearly 20 years and “The Fulton Sheen Program” for nearly 10. Widely considered a prophet of the times, his comments bore significance at the time and are increasingly, perhaps even chillingly, relevant in today’s culture.
When the reporter asked him why churches had abandoned their prophetic role and de-emphasized their job of calling men to justice, Sheen replied: “Partly because of the social gospel.
Today’s social gospel has gotten churches more related to the economy and the social order and less related to the spiritual and the divine.” The social gospel “is right and good, but too often based on neglect of the individual. So, we save communities rather than souls within these communities. You need a standard outside what is currently popular to be prophetic,” he said, noting problems caused by ignorance of the Bible and neglect of the Gospel.
“You never know how fast you are going without a barometer outside yourself,” he explained. Churches weren’t “talking prophetically because a prophetic role requires a deep understanding of our generation and the ability to judge it by the gospel standard.”
Sheen also noted that confusion was caused by changing lifestyles and accompanying fads, and he warned against “identifying yourself with a symbol or a catch-word.”
Regarding dissension in churches, he said the Church is holy “when it is opposed from without, not from within.” Sheen also said people are caught up too much in “a spirit of negativism” and because of their “bad conscience are compelled to find what’s wrong with everything.” He continued by saying a lot is troubling us on the inside, warning that “we live in a sensate, emotional age.” He also noted that many leaders at the time were concerned about the world because “there’s nothing permanent in it.” However, he was quick to say that spiritual leaders should focus on how many are coming into the Church and that clergy should “accentuate the positive.”
The tenor of Sheen’s words was consistent with many of his homilies and talks during the final years of his life. His visit to Greensboro was not long before a sharp decline in his health. It has been noted that the pain he experienced and his messages to the faithful were particularly intense at this time of his life.
In a foreword to Sheen’s autobiography, “Treasure in Clay,” Raymond Arroyo writes about the archbishop’s state in the late 1970s: “Starting in 1977, he underwent a series of surgeries that sapped his strength and even made preaching difficult. He must have known that this would be his final work because one senses an urgency on these pages, an eagerness to impart these lessons, particularly those dealing with the spiritual bounty found in pain. The last chapters crackle with the same zeal and determination of his final homilies from the late ’70s; they are prophetic and impassioned, free from the gilded edges of the past.”
The gloves were off, in a sense, and it was for the best. The prophetic Sheen spoke of Christ and the Gospel with clarity and aplomb, as affirmed to him during a tender moment between the archbishop and future St. John Paul II. His preaching was ardent, done first and foremost with love – love of Christ and souls.
His future beatification, an official recognition of his holiness and heroic virtue, is sure to shower blessings on Our Lady of Grace, Peoria, and communities in every corner of this country where he’s touched individual souls. As the faithful patiently pray for the blessed day to arrive, we ask this zealous and holy man to intercede for us during these troubled times. Venerable Fulton J. Sheen, pray for us!
— Annie Ferguson, Correspondent